Subject:  Brief comment about 60-Hz fields (fwd)
Date:     Sat, 29 Nov 1997 142648 -0600 (CST)
From:     "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@mail.llion.org>
To:       emfguru@hotmail.com
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 29 Nov 1997 14:06:49 -0600
From: "Marjorie A. Lundquist" 
To: rbeavers@mail.llion.org
Subject: Brief comment about 60-Hz fields

 Roy, this is just a brief comment about 60-Hz fields to address your
skepticism about the "innocence" of 60-Hz fields.
 One reason I am convinced that 60-Hz fields by themselves do not pose a
hazard to health is that before 1911, there was no power line carrier on
electric power lines.  That means that radio-frequency fields did NOT
surround electric power lines in the 19th century, or in the first decade
of the 20th century.
 If 60-Hz fields were capable of causing disease, complaints would have
been reported during the 19th century.  The voltage used then is much the
same as today; the current in the power lines was probably lower then than
it is today, but the current in appliances would have been much the same
as it is today (or possibly even greater, since we now strive for energy
efficiency).
 People who use an electric device often spend lots of time close to it.
A good example is a woman who cooks on an electric stove.  Women probably
spent more time cooking in the 19th and early 20th century than they do
today, so if 60-Hz fields were hazardous, we should have seen our worst
cases of disease in women from that time period who cooked on electric
stoves.
 So if 60-Hz current were responsible for the diseases that I attribute
to RF fields around power lines, we would have seen these diseases early
on.  The hazard would have been present from the beginning.
 And people were not shy about reporting their suspicions back then!  You
can be sure that if there had been ANY suspicion at all of a health haz-
ard from electricity, there would have been a lot of publicity in the
newspapers and magazines of the day.  But there is nothing there!
 The pattern of the appearance of these diseases does NOT parallel the
historical growth in the use of electricity.  It DOES parallel the growth
in the use of power line carrier on electric power lines.
 I am not going to argue about whether 60-Hz fields are harmful IN THE
PRESENCE OF RF FIELDS because I don't know the answer.  It is certainly
possible that 60-Hz field exposure may have some effect when one is al-
ready being exposed to RF fields.  There is considerable evidence in the
scientific literature to indicate that exposure at one frequency can in-
crease or decrease the effects of exposure at another frequency.  So per-
haps 60-Hz fields do indeed pose some hazard to organisms that are exposed
at the same time to RF fields.
 Remember that I focus my attention on the PREVENTION of disease.  I am
still satisfied that we do not have to worry about adverse health effects
from exposure to 60-Hz fields by themselves.  The way to correct our cur-
rent problems with power line health hazards is to get rid of the radio-
frequency that is present:  the power line carrier.  The extremely low
frequency fields that remain will not produce disease--because they have
not done so in the past! -- Marjorie Lundquist

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Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html